tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136879872018-03-05T16:23:36.188-08:00For me, the bells tollrashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-75436553650054481972009-11-06T12:05:00.000-08:002010-07-26T19:10:34.188-07:00Benford's Law<div>Benford's <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080730013801/http://www.rexswain.com/benford.html">law</a> is awesome! Real science, although it is arguable whether statistics is in fact a real science and I know someone who'll be up in arms were such a claim to be made, is far more intriguing than the stuff of novels.</div>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-89439247507126380022009-04-03T08:46:00.001-07:002009-04-03T08:50:41.403-07:00WhoobieIt bugs me<hints id="hah_hints"></hints> when I'm forced to write bad code in a language as beautiful as Ruby.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-91569231889620423812009-02-21T13:56:00.000-08:002009-02-21T14:22:56.130-08:00Watching...It looks like I'm one of a minority who think <span style="font-style: italic;">Slumdog Millionaire</span> is a mediocre derived piece of work. Utterly uninspired, shallow, overtly dramatic and clichéd, it borrows heavily from the traditional Bollywood genre - not that there's anything wrong with it, but we've all seen the rags-to-riches tale with the boy-meets-girl--boy-loses-girl--boy-gets-girl spin enacted in countless creative ways for decades now, that it's just mindless repetitive consumerist crap at this point. Even if Danny Boyle's film has its moments (and how colorful some of his scenes are), ultimately <span style="font-style: italic;">Slumdog Millionaire </span>is drone Bollywood melodrama dressed up to meet its western counterparts. Too bad it's being elevated to undeserving heights of film glory.<br /><br />Late last night, I watched the pilot of Alan Ball's mindblowing series <span style="font-style: italic;">Six Feet Under. <span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>Yes, I know I've arrived long after the train has left the station (the series debuted in 2001), and<span style="font-style: italic;"></span> it's time to board <span style="font-style: italic;">True Blood, </span>but I've just had my mind blown away by the dark despairing humor that is the show's catalyst. I'm now seriously considering spending a hundred bucks and just buying the box set instead of scavenging through the local library.<hints id="hah_hints"></hints>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-18284492307865205582008-11-17T20:00:00.000-08:002008-11-17T20:51:43.334-08:00Sigur Rós<img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__HBXEUM_lLk/SSJJrcshohI/AAAAAAAAAEI/8kmP4EyY7vY/s320/sr.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269855524763050514" border="0" />No form of music till now, with the possible exception of the electronic melancholies of Ulrich Schnauss, captures that pure essence of music for me, that prompts indescribable feelings of bittersweet memories to float vividly in front of my eyes, that sets my heart, my lungs and every part of my body thumping with excitement and anticipation, that combines rhythm and progression into a distinctive form of artistic expression, and that is able to lull me simultaneously into the darkest of corridors and the brightest of gardens.<br /><br />Watching Sigur Rós perform on stage was undeniably one of the greatest moments of my life. The audience at United Palace Theater, New York, was mostly comprised of people my age, and suffice it to say, at the end of two hours, we were drained of every possible emotion known to man. Testament to the fact that music is universal, I'm pretty sure very few people in the audience actually understand the lyrics of Sigur Rós, partly because the songs are sung in a mixture of icelandic and "hopelandic". But matter it does not, since we all connected and related to the music in ways far more ethereal than just its vocal interpretation.<br /><br />Beautiful and breathtaking in scale and form, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Sigur+R%C3%B3s/_/Hopp%C3%ADpolla">Hoppipola</a> is that one song I screamed at that night. Riding back in the New York subway amidst hundreds of faces, a sight I found to be relatively uncommon even in that densely populated city, I was ecstatic that night. I had finally experienced true beauty.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-65253396817851992762008-11-03T15:38:00.000-08:002008-11-03T15:52:27.032-08:00My new macbookI finally got my own macbook! It arrived today morning, but as I was not at home, the Fedex delivery agent had left a notice pasted onto the front door. I couldn't wait until tomorrow, when he would return, so I took a bus to the nearest Fedex location (a 20 minute drive), but in the rush, forgot to check for a return bus. So here I am, sitting in an office operated by one of the bus companies, still an hour to go, waiting for the next bus home. Thankfully, they've Wifi here, and it took me just about 20 minutes to unbox my new laptop and let 'er rip.<div> The initial cold touch of aluminum felt good, and the laptop feels ridiculously light yet somehow sturdy. I'm grappling with the new trackpad and the absence of the familiar <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Home</span> and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">End</span> keys. Other than that, I'm pleasantly surprised with the screen; the glossy finish is not as bad as I'd thought it would be, though a test under normal sunlight would probably fail miserably.</div><div> I'm now waiting for my new copy of Photoshop CS4 to arrive in the mail in a couple of days. After that, it's installing Windows XP and try on some real gaming. Yaay.</div>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-70838412680352661602008-11-02T11:16:00.000-08:002009-11-06T12:12:53.527-08:00The WinkIt is refreshing to watch a tongue-in-cheek ad, expertly made, from the presumptive democratic nominee; and especially one so close to the election. I am partial towards advertisements with no speech - the visual medium is far more convincing than the auditory one in conveying a message, a thought, an idea or simply a suggestion.<br />And it should be clear that I favour the senator from Illinois. Now there is nothing left to do, but hope.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-40659946235734141292008-09-16T19:44:00.000-07:002008-09-16T19:50:00.086-07:00wiThinHe said - I took the risk, didn't I? I took the first step, didn't I? We briefly hit it off, didn't we? How then, did I miss your cue?rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-49267152012942930592008-08-31T22:48:00.000-07:002008-08-31T23:12:42.154-07:00My favourite quotes of the past few days..."Quantum physics is to regular everyday physics as a David Lynch film is to a mainstream blockbuster." - a <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_16583_5-scientific-experiments-most-likely-end-world.html">cracked</a> article on Dark Matter.<br /><br />"It's the oldest law of warfare: have your guns in populated areas, and when the enemy responds, show the world your dead women and children." - Thomas Goltz, an academic specializing in the Caucasus, commenting on the recent Russo-Georgian war.<br /><br />"Every time Barack Obama makes a speech, an angel has an orgasm." - <span style="font-style: italic;">The Daily show with Jon Stewart</span>.<br /><br />I've also been watching a lot of old episodes from <span style="font-style: italic;">The</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Simpsons</span>. And this line by Homer is just...such a culturally observant remark, especially considering that it comes from a bovine personality.<br /><p>"In a world gone mad, only a lunatic is truly insane." <span class="homerdate">- Homer Simpson.<br /></span></p>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-76487052939429078292008-08-26T23:25:00.000-07:002008-08-26T23:42:06.863-07:00It's not the thought that countsIt is with mild disdain that I relate to the fact that those moments when the mind is drowsy, such as a just-awoken state or a near-sleepless one, are the most interesting - such as this fleeting, hopeless, reclusive thought that I cooked up today: "Swallowing its pride, the lion swallowed its pride".<br />Really, how juvenile does a person have to be to think of such phrase-mocking statements as these, even in the most unstable of conditions?<br /><br />What is probably more disturbing for me is that the thought ferociously stuck even after I was fully awoke. And, well, I had to pretty much swallow my pride in order to post this one.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-73907742813570501162008-08-04T22:25:00.000-07:002008-08-04T22:31:16.187-07:00More than a feelingIt's humbling: trying to condense my last eight years into a single page, and finding out there's still some space left at the bottom.<hints id="hah_hints"></hints>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-74386096253020174202008-07-14T20:41:00.000-07:002008-07-14T21:28:34.597-07:00Another Oracle takes birthIf you're a gamer, the next year is going to be one massive joyride, with the gods of computer gaming that are Blizzard, ID, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Maxis, Valve and EA prepping up to give us an orgasmic barrage of titles that can satiate, hell wreak total havoc, on even the most casual and unyielding gamer. Me, I again descend into nostalgia, remembering the time when a friend and I bought six <span style="font-style: italic;">epic</span> games together, and I went breathless for a moment, unable to grasp the gravity of the situation. I guess most of us are urban escapists, one way or the other. The familiarity yet the distance posed by films, music, novels or gaming - showing worlds unbeknown to us - draw us ever closer to them, eventually leaving us hip-deep in chimerical alternate universes. *twitch*<br /><br />These fits...these...convulsions...<br />Should I live this world?<br />Or play it?<br /><hints id="hah_hints"></hints>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-8809125033067106472008-07-08T21:11:00.000-07:002008-07-08T22:56:56.091-07:00Quasi Una fantasia, Op. 27, No. 2It was late in the evening and I was walking back home lugging the overweight laptop and lost in thought about nothing in particular. I usually glance back at the clock on top of the tower as I tread on the grass beneath my foot and silently recollect the crunch of snow during winter while also feeling, quite viscerally, the acrid humidity in the air recently. The clock read nine. The sun still hesitated to dip below the dotted horizon, and started flinging harmless, tingling shots of orange and yellow into the far sky in a dying gesture that hinted at ingratitude. To whom was a mystery. Is always a mystery.<br /><br />The chimes began to ascend into the heavy air. Warmth around, and void inside. I find myself asking the same dreaded question - Will it all just be a chimerical fantasy? Silence. The cadence in the evening sky continued still. Right around the eighth strike, I realized I was subconsciously counting every chime, feeling it like a heartbeat, relinquishing the last while anticipating the next. It was like a roller coaster ride where the sudden turns no longer held any surprise. I knew exactly when the next one would come. Just around the corner. There you go. Nine. Elementary Arithmetic has a strangely comforting feeling.<br /><br />The moon started to peek shyly through the leaves of the nearest tree. The night had just begun.<hints id="hah_hints"></hints>rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-60979061398322055082008-05-14T16:30:00.000-07:002008-05-14T16:47:03.858-07:00And another....Yaawn. Staying awake has never been so frustrating. I await the despondence.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-54063848448508190312008-04-30T20:22:00.000-07:002008-04-30T20:46:50.964-07:00Cold PeaceSo I watched Eran Kolirin's brilliant and hilarious Israeli debut <span style="font-style: italic;">The Band's Visit</span> this evening. Beautiful!rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-24492092970168065882008-03-28T09:48:00.000-07:002008-03-28T09:49:21.288-07:00One more cupI never thought I'd say this, but I'm slowly yet progressively getting addicted to caffeine.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-35186461582384967362008-03-21T21:04:00.000-07:002008-03-24T07:39:31.471-07:00WillkommenI unboxed a Macbook Pro today. Sadly it belonged to a friend. And as I slid my fingers over its keyboard, I came to the realization that I was destined to buy it someday. I'm a sucker for everything that's eye-candy. Afterwards, we watched <span style="font-style: italic;">Frida</span> on the new Macbook. Such a beautiful film; but Julie Taymor looks to be a tad too eager to prove herself, frequently imbuing the film with stylistic touches that were otherwise unnecessary. Somewhat like Joe Wright in <span style="font-style: italic;">Atonement</span>. I just regret not watching her latest, <span style="font-style: italic;">Across the Universe</span>, when I had the chance.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-81540061154505276132008-03-02T13:54:00.000-08:002008-03-02T14:10:25.462-08:00Stuck in a moment that I can't get out ofSo I wake up this morning and there it is. <span style="font-style: italic;">Tijuana</span>! A name that's stuck in my head since morning. Ever had a word stuck in your head for unknown reasons? It's mildly disconcerting, like a distant splinter that the eye can barely see and stubbornly refuses to ignore. So every few minutes now, this word keeps popping into my head while I'm in the middle of something; and all I care to know about it is that it's a Mexican city. And this is not the first time something like this has happened; at least the third. I think the last one was some European politician who hung around mysteriously, stalking me for a couple of days and then disappeared in a puff of smoke (ok, maybe not that last one). So, Tijuana, how long will you be staying?rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-31080449448897184412008-02-29T15:46:00.000-08:002008-12-08T13:42:37.909-08:00If only I could turn back time<img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__HBXEUM_lLk/R8iZmdMtZPI/AAAAAAAAABY/FFqOol1qevY/s400/cah.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172553057987028210" border="0" />This <span style="font-style: italic;">C&amp;H</span> strip appeared the day before yesterday. Perfect timing. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just too blunt/instantaneous/careless/rude/insensitive; can't even seem to count the number of times I metaphorically bit my lip in the last two weeks alone.<br /><br />[update] Of course in the strip, Calvin does it <span style="font-style: italic;">intentionally</span>. And the title is alludes to a song from the 90's pop band <span style="font-style: italic;">Aqua</span>.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-48264776648402211302008-02-23T00:14:00.000-08:002008-02-23T00:21:37.810-08:00sighIt's one of those nights; the heart is restless; the mind is excited; the body is a slump. I'm not able to sleep....rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-67180571009038582882008-02-12T10:26:00.000-08:002008-02-12T10:33:02.849-08:00No mon, it wasn't always this easyReading an old <a href="http://www.cs.virginia.edu/%7Ezaher/classes/CS656/p306-daley.pdf">paper</a> on <span style="font-style: italic;">MULTICS</span><span>, I came across this as one of the design goals of the system:<br /><br /></span>"To permit a degree of programming generality not previously practical. This includes the ability of one procedure to use another procedure knowing only its name, and without knowledge of its requirements for storage, or the additional procedures upon which it may in turn call."<br /><br />Oh the things we take for granted today.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-7754381864177050982008-01-05T22:52:00.000-08:002008-01-05T23:09:27.296-08:00Combustion of SpontaneityTo be both mercurial and indecisive is an extreme pain (without pleasure, mind you). I've often taken decisions in less time than it would take a user process to switch to kernel mode (well not really, since those syscall/sysenter instructions came into place). But then I've also stood on cross paths, deciding which way to go, taking a step in one direction, retreating, taking a step in a different direction, retreating again, and so on. Literally. This usually happens when I start thinking about the decision and weigh it against the other choices. No, shouldn't be done. Especially when one is as spontaneous as nitric acid on copper. To reflect when one can still retreat is something that needs to be avoided. Forget the recent past and live in the moment. Sigh, rarely happens, but when it does, it's such a treat for the heart.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-86752403604176938082007-12-04T19:10:00.000-08:002007-12-04T19:16:42.819-08:00SnowHave you ever looked down at night, walking along a street, cold and shivering, and seen stars twinkling like diamonds, set in a blanket of whiteness?<br />It's wonderful.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-2547046247268710032007-10-31T15:21:00.000-07:002007-10-31T15:39:30.062-07:00MirrorHe stared at the ceiling and the ceiling stared back. Its two drunken eyes, one larger than the other, glowing mildly, contentedly, stalking and preying upon the carpet and everything else that lies below. Their spacial placement on the ceiling stank of nepotism, yet were stunning under the gaze of someone who had just begun to recognize the beauty underneath the banal, sending visceral streams of a realization that patterns of life can sometimes emerge from within the motionless serenity that marks this plastic environment.rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-13716852650843011772007-09-30T09:32:00.000-07:002008-12-08T13:42:38.405-08:00camera obscura<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" ><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; " src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__HBXEUM_lLk/Rv_RRdblunI/AAAAAAAAAAs/wThot9b7wvk/s400/hcb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5116037799604501106" border="0" /></a>After much deliberation and debate, I finally ended up getting a camera. Over the past two years when I first got interested in photography, I've gradually realized that to shoot something, anything, it's the eye and not the camera that's the deciding factor between a mediocre photograph and an extraordinary one. To develop such a skill is indeed an art. I just hope I've the time and patience for this.<br />[photograph: <span style="font-style: italic;">Behind The Gare St. Lazare</span> - Henri Cartier Bresson]rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13687987.post-18515130032872504512007-08-27T09:00:00.000-07:002008-01-05T22:50:12.286-08:00The Big ScreenOver the past two days I've come to realize the only way to sleep less is to sleep uncomfortably; that way, I wake up when I <strike>should</strike> ought to rather than when I usually do. And I've made it a point to stay away from anything soporific the rest of the day lest it induce me with two hours of what I just scrupulously avoided. I've also been on a tiny cinema marathon watching seven films in two days, the more mainstream of them being <span style="font-style: italic;">Ratatouille.</span> It's been a long time since I saw an animated film on the big screen (I think the last one was <span style="font-style: italic;">Over the hedge</span>) and <span style="font-style: italic;">Ratatouille </span>was just as fantastic and entertaining as <span style="font-style: italic;">28 weeks later</span> (the sequel to one of my favourite horror films, <span style="font-style: italic;">28 days later</span>), that I saw last week. Quite a change from the kind of insipid entertainment that usually shows up, and I regret having missed out on <span style="font-style: italic;">The </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Simpsons </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Movie</span>. Oh well....rashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14387372889963120336noreply@blogger.com3